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Testing Effects of Swim Instruction on Autistic Children's Swimming and Water Safety Skills

Award Number: R21HD111917
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/13/2023
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2026

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Testing Effects of Swim Instruction on Autistic Children's Swimming and Water Safety Skills - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Autistic Children are at 160 times greater risk of drowning than the general pediatric population. Though swim instruction is recommended as a drowning prevention strategy, there is extremely limited research evaluating swim instruction for autistic children and no comparative trials. We developed Sensory Enhanced Aquatics (SEA), a swimming and water-safety program specifically to accommodate autistic children’s unique challenges and learning needs. Program evaluation data showed SEA improved children’s swim skills, with 74% improving at least one swim level (n=40) and 100% of parents feeling safer with their child around water. Thus, we propose to conduct a single blind, randomized controlled pilot trial to test the differential effects of an eight-week (16 lesson) SEA intervention and standard swim lessons on attainment of swimming and water- safety skills of autistic children. We will enroll 50 autistic children aged 5-9 years who will be randomized 1:1 by minimization to either the SEA intervention or standard swim lessons to minimize imbalanced group allocation by autism severity and baseline swim skill. Aim 1 will compare the effects of SEA to standard swimming lessons on swimming and water safety skills of autistic children with a swim test based on Red Cross water- competency guidelines. Aim 2 will assess which participant characteristics (e.g., age, motor ability, autism severity) are associated with the highest post-intervention swim skills and water safety across both groups to inform who benefits most from swim instruction. Child sex and co-occurring motor impairment will be considered as potential covariates. Data will be collected before swim lessons and after 8 weeks of SEA or standard lessons. We hypothesize children in both groups will demonstrate improvement in swimming and water safety skills with greater improvements in the SEA group; autism severity and motor ability will have the greatest associations with swim skill in both groups. Our exploratory aim will employ post-intervention semi- structured interviews to explore child, parent, and instructor perspectives about instructional methods most effective for developing swimming and water-safety among autistic children. The information obtained from this study will improve our understanding of the best strategies for swim instruction for autistic children and support our long-term goal to make SEA scalable on the national level to prevent drowning of autistic children.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $190,887 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.	3901 RAINBOW BLVD	KANSAS CITY	KS	66160	WYANDOTTE	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	001	2	8/26/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$19,089
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.	3901 RAINBOW BLVD	KANSAS CITY	KS	66160	WYANDOTTE	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	2	11/18/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$171,798
														Subtotal = $190,887

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $229,720 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.	3901 RAINBOW BLVD	KANSAS CITY	KS	66160	WYANDOTTE	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	1	12/12/2023	NEW	$229,720
														Subtotal = $229,720

Grand Total All Awards = $420,607

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Testing Effects of Swim Instruction on Autistic Children's Swimming and Water Safety Skills

Award Number: R21HD111917

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/13/2023

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2026

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